Bleeding Cool has some more info about the "New 52" and a hint about Stephanie

Here are a few samples from a retailer who attended the DC Retail launch on FridayWhy the change?Dan started out explaining why DC was doing this. DC had taken a look at the comics industry as a whole and felt that the industry needed a shot in the arm. They felt that the stories had gotten stale and too talky. Dan recounted a book he read recently from ‘another publisher’ that had 15 pages of 9 panels of exposition. He felt comics used to be able to do stories that movies couldn’t. Lately, comic book movies have been doing comics better than comics have. Dan felt that DC needed to work harder across the board to improve the product. DC wants to publish books that are fresh and exciting that can compete with the level of action that fans are finding on TV, in movies and video games and elsewhere.

The end of "Writing for Trade"Another change DC is making is that they won’t be ‘writing for the trade’ anymore. Writers have been told to write the story they want to write and not worry about the trade collecting. If they can tell a well-paced story in 4 issues, they’ve been told not to pad it to make it 6 issues. Editorial can worry about how it’s going to be collected.

If it ain't broke...DC realized that some things were working fine. Based on sales, critical response and fan comments, they knew that Green Lantern and Batman weren’t ‘broken’. In approaching the re-launch, DC didn’t want to throw out the baby with the bathwater. They knew some things needed to be changed, but they didn’t want to lose the excitement behind what was working. Instead of a re-boot, they opted for a sliding re-launch. Continuity would be preserved and only where things weren’t working would there be changes. As such, there are are little to no changes in the Batman and Green Lantern books.

There are sections for all the various sub-categories on the link- Superman, Dark, Edge etc, here are a couple of the items of interest to us here;

Batman FamilyBatgirl- Barbara Gordon is back as Batgirl. The events of Killing Joke and her tenure as Oracle have occurred and this title addresses her return to the role.

Birds of Prey- Barbara Gordon will still be part of the book.

Justice League FamilyJustice League- The flagship title of the New 52. Jim Lee joked that if Geoff Johns had been there, Geoff would have said that he had always wanted to work with Jim. The three keywords here are Heart, Humor and Heroics. The first arc of this book takes place 5 years in the past and serves as a Year One story for the Justice League. In story, up until this point, there have been no ‘super-heroes’, just super powered individuals who have sometimes been viewed with suspicion. By banding together, the Justice League wants to show the world that they are deserving the moniker of super-hero.

Young Justice FamilyTeen Titans- All four Robins star or co-star in a book. (I know, what about Stephanie Brown? It was hinted that we would see her in Batman Incorporated. Dan Didio said she worked better as Spoiler.) This book is Tim Drake’s showcase. There will be some synergy between this and Superboy.

And for legality, a reason why working for Two-Face might have it's little perks when you've just rendered Gotham's finest unconscious...

To borrow one of my favourite Xander quotes from Buffy "Hands! Hands in NEW PLACES!"

The first arc of [Justice League] takes place 5 years in the past and serves as a Year One story for the Justice League. In story, up until this point, there have been no 'super-heroes', just super powered individuals who have sometimes been viewed with suspicion. By banding together, the Justice League wants to show the world that they are deserving the moniker of super-hero.

This sounds an awful lot like DC took it's cues from the X-Men with this approach.

The first arc will detail Superman's public debut. At this point, Dan Didio went on a tangent to explain that DC wanted to let go of the past and move forward. Any changes in continuity would be addressed in-story as needed, but that they really didn't want to get bogged down so these reveals would be gradual and as they make sense in the story. There is a document in the DC offices that fleshes out exactly what has and hasn't happened in the New 52 Universe. As an example, the Death of Superman storyline has occurred.

And this sounds an awful lot like how Marvel was defending Spider-Man: One More Day.

If Batman wasn't 'broken', then why have DC decided to take Dick Grayson out of the cowl, and dump him from every book he was appearing in?

I also don't count reducing Dick's appearances from what, 5 a month, to 1 as "little to no changes".

And how does Stephanie work better as Spoiler, exactly? I can't think of a single way that's true. Still, I can't wait for DC to get slated by people for giving Oracle her legs back, so she can be a 'proper hero' again.

JLA takes place in the past, and won't sync up with any other titles? Oh yeah, that's a great way of getting new readers up to speed with continuity, isn't it?

Well, Dan Didio isn't a fan of either Cass or Steph, so therefore DC fans as a whole aren't fans either. That's how this shit works.

But given that Didio is the only editor I've heard of where writers and artists simply rebelled and refused to implement an idea he wanted (killing Dick Grayson in Infinite Crisis), I don't think any of his ideas should be taken seriously at all.

If Jason can be Red Hood and Tim can be Red Robin and Cass can be Black Bat I am perfectly cool with Steph choosing to use the identity she created for herself to let someone else step into the Batgirl role.

I LOVE how they say they are moving forward, while doing INCREDIBLY regressive things, like putting Babs back in the suit.

Another issue I want address:

While Gail may be the ONLY female creator in the new reboot, DC is actually screwing her over. They took her off Birds of Prey and told her NOTHING about the book she has worked so hard on for so long, and THEN they cancelled Secret Six, to be replaced by Suicide Squad, featuring King Shark and Deadshot and AGAIN didn't even bother telling her those characters were being used!They are not treating her fairly.

Also, they CLEARLY want all the books to be just like their TV/film adaptations, but that is the exact OPPOSITE of how it should be!

Why do the stupid mainstream, the people who LIKE Smallville etc., get to decide how MY comics are! I understand that they want to draw in new readers, but how about making the TV shows based on the comics, thereby actually drawing in viewers to the comics.

Why do the stupid mainstream, the people who LIKE Smallville etc., get to decide how MY comics are!

I understand the sentiment... I guess... but if you're going to heap scorn on people for liking stupid things, you ought to appreciate that superhero comic readers live in one extremely brittle glass house. :/

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